How EU is tightening its migration policy and why it will affect Ukrainians

According to Eurostat, in 2025 only around 135,000 of the nearly 492,000 return orders issued were actually enforced – roughly 27%.

This undermines confidence in the European Union's migration policy as a whole.

It creates the impression that the rules exist only on paper. In turn, this fuels support for radical political forces that advocate not reform but the dismantling of humanitarian obligations.

That is why the current reforms are designed, on the one hand, to preserve the right to asylum for those who genuinely need international protection, while, on the other, making the system stricter for people who have no legal right to remain in the EU.

Read more about the pillars of the EU's new migration policy and what they could mean for Ukrainians in the article by Taras Myshliaiev o the International Diplomatic Alliance NGO: A 'tougher' Schengen: How the EU is changing the rules for irregular migrants and what it will mean. 

The EU is gradually redesigning the entire architecture of migration management – from border crossings and asylum applications to final decisions, monitoring of legal status and the return of those without the right to stay.

The first pillar of the new migration architecture is the Migration and Asylum Pact, which entered into force in June 2024.

Its main objective is to streamline entry into the EU. People crossing the EU's external borders or applying for asylum will undergo a single screening procedure. This includes identity verification, security checks, health assessments, vulnerability assessments and the collection of basic personal data.

The second pillar is the introduction of accelerated border procedures. The purpose of these procedures is not to automatically reject applications, but to process certain cases more quickly and closer to the EU's external borders.

The third pillar is the updated Eurodac system – a centralised EU biometric database. The reform is intended to make an individual's migration status more visible within the EU's shared digital system.

The fourth pillar is a solidarity mechanism, ensuring that member states facing the greatest migration pressure are not left alone to handle the reception, registration and processing of asylum applications.

But what happens to people who, after completing all entry procedures, are not granted the right to remain in the European Union?

This is where the proposed new Return Regulation governing the return of third-country nationals who are staying illegally in the EU becomes crucial.

Although the legislation still has to complete its final legal procedures, its underlying logic is already clear.

The EU wants to make returns faster, more uniform and less dependent on the weaknesses of individual national systems.

The European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) has described the proposed Return Regulation as one of the most punitive migration instruments in the EU's history.

An important question remains: what practical impact will this new policy have on citizens of countries neighboring the EU?

For now, Ukrainians benefiting from temporary protection or another legal residence status remain outside the scope of the return system.

However, once temporary protection ends or is transformed into another legal framework, many Ukrainians will need to switch to other legal grounds for residence – such as employment, study, family reunification, entrepreneurship, long-term residence or voluntary return.

Those who fail to make such a transition risk falling into the general category of third-country nationals without a legal right to stay.

The new Return Regulation will enter into force gradually.

The full implementation of the new return system is expected to take place no earlier than mid-2027.